Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council is over charging Mrs X council tax for late 2011 to the end of 2015. It says her home was split into two flats. Mrs X and/or her late husband had a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if they wanted to dispute council tax liability. The complaint is made late. It is not likely investigation will achieve the desired reduction in the tax bill.

The complaint

1. Mr Y complains on behalf of Mrs X that the Council has wrongly charged her for council tax at her property over many years. Mr Y says the Council has treated the property as two flats rather than one house. Mr Y says Mrs X has financial difficulties and the Council should refund the tax to February 2012 or cancel the debt.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered Mr Y’s information and comments. I have discussed the complaint with him further to sending him a draft decision statement. The Council has supplied its communications with Mr Y. The information includes communications with the Valuation Office.

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What I found

6. The Council says in 2011 Mr X informed it that he had converted the property into two flats. It has supplied a handwritten form, dated 8 December 2011, in which Mr X confirms the change. He says he is again asking the Council to treat the flats as separate properties for council tax from November 2010. The Councils says it also had a communication from a tenant who was occupying the ground floor flat. The Valuation Office, email 10 January 2020, says it visited the property and found two flats on 4 July 2012 and 15 September 2015.
7. In January 2016, the Council says it received information that the property had been converted back into a single dwelling. Mrs X visited the Council in September 2016 and informed it the property had one kitchen. The Council says it asked the Valuation Office in 2016 and 2018 to amend the banding but this did not happen. The Valuation Office has now banded the property as a single dwelling from January 2016.
8. On 12 November 2019, the Council wrote to Mr Y, before the tax had been adjusted from January 2016. The Council says Mrs X has a council tax debt of some £7312 back to December 2011. The Council says she started to receive full council tax support from 1 July 2019. It suggested that she agree to pay £15 per month to avoid further debt recovery action.
9. We received Mr Y’s complaint on 5 November 2020. Mr Y tells me he first became involved this year and visited the property. He says Mr X did not tell his wife what was going and she only became aware of the council tax issue following his death. Mr Y confirms Mrs X has lived at the property throughout the period. He says a family member also lived at the property. He says the split into two flats is not shown on the deeds. He says he is negotiating an arrangement to pay the debt. He wants the Council to drop the debt from the disputed years before January 2016.

Analysis

10. I will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons:
11. A dispute about council tax liability (including whether a property is one or two dwellings for tax purposes) is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction because Mr and Mrs X has or had a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal (see paragraphs 3 and 4). I consider it reasonable for Mrs X to have appealed because the Valuation Tribunal is a specialist body with power to decide liability.
12. Decisions which Mrs X knew about before November 2019 are outside our jurisdiction. The complaint is made late, outside the permitted period of 12 months (see paragraph 2). I will not exercise discretion to investigate because Mrs X could have complained sooner. We cannot achieve anything. The dispute about liability is outside jurisdiction as explained above. In addition, the evidence suggests the property was split into two dwellings for some years.
13. We do not have a complaint about the debt recovery actions. The Council has suggested an amount which would prevent debt recovery action and costs.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council is overcharging Mrs X council tax for late 2011 to the end of 2015. It says her home was split into two flats. Mrs X and/or her late husband had a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if they wanted to dispute council tax liability. The complaint is made late. It is not likely that investigation will achieve the desired outcome of a reduction in the tax bill.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman